But this year I changed it up just a little and decorated a couple of the mini pumpkins with nothing but silverand gold glitter glue.

I started at the center of the top of the pumpkin, slowly pouring out the glitter glue in a tight circle around the stem. I did a gold circle, then a silver one, then gold, et cetera, keeping the circles tight and touching each other until I had the entire top of the pumpkin covered in a thick layer of glitter glue and it was just barely starting to drip down the sides in the creases.

These Vampire Donuts were the biggest hit of our last Halloween season.

I always do a lot of crafts and recipes with my girls during Halloween, as it’s my second fave holiday (following quite closely on the heels of Christmas). But these right here? Totally made it to the top of the list of awesomeness.

And how incredibly ridiculously EASY???

Seriously. I went and picked up a dollar bag full of vampire teeth and stuck them in some glazed donuts from Publix.

I had to push open the holes a little to make the teeth fit, but that was no big deal.

You could mix it up with some chocolate or autumn-flavored (apple or pumpkin spice anybody??) donuts instead, and you could dress it up by adding a little red gel icing to look like blood dripping from the fangs too.

Sooo… Easter’s kind of around the corner and I’m over here like, gee… I haven’t posted any of my Halloween stuff yet…

Well, better late than never, right?

Hopefully you agree. :)

For last Halloween, I made these to help my kids practice counting. My girls are in preschool and kindergarten, and these worksheets have a variety of activities for them, including counting the shapes, matching the candy to the shapes, figuring out which is biggest and smallest group, and tracing the numbers both as figures and as words.

For the Candy Corn Counting worksheet we used regular candy corn. For the Pumpkin Patch Counting worksheet, we used the pumpkins out of a bag of mixed mallowcremes, but you could also get a bag of just the pumpkins, or even something like these jelly pumpkins.

If you’re trying to avoid giving your kids any extra candy, you could pick up some Halloween erasers instead, which you can usually find at a dollar store if it’s actually, you know, around Halloween. Or you could pick up some on Amazon instead. The erasers are also good because you can keep using them for other math activities afterwards.

Or, you could avoid both the candy and the toys altogether and just color in the shapes. No toys to lose and nothing to eat.

Even though the eating was, you know, my kids’ favorite part.

Here are the free printable worksheets – just click the names to download the PDF:

This Jack O’ Lantern “Pumpkin” Cheesy Bread is another fun lunch idea to serve up in October!

I love playing with food and this is one of those things that makes my kids a little more excited about eating non-candy foods. Granted, an open-faced cheese sandwich might not be the healthiest thing in their lunchbox, but it’s filling. And you can make it with whatever kind of bread you like. It looks better on wheat than white bread, and even better on pumpernickel.

I used the big pumpkins from this cookie cutter set to cut out the bread. A regular loaf of sandwich bread may be a little small for the big cookie cutter, so you can either use the smaller pumpkin instead, or just flatten out the bread slice a little bit to make it wider. Like with a rolling pin. Or your hands, if you’re lazy like me.

Then, take your orange cheese (I used American but if your kids like cheddar, that’s awesome, too) and cut out a pumpkin with the same cutter you used for the bread. You may have to put two pieces of cheese next to each other to be big enough for the pumpkin, but don’t worry – it’ll all melt together.

On a cutting board, after you’ve cut your pumpkin shape from the cheese slice, use a small knife to carve the face from the cheese. Draw the face with the point of the knife and then use the knife to lift out the extra pieces. Then gently transfer the cheese to the bread, lining up the pumpkin shapes.

Put the bread on a napkin and microwave it for 5 to 7 seconds – just enough to barely melt the cheese. If it melts too much, the face will spread and get mushy. Remember, you want it to melt just enough to make sure the cheese will stick to the bread and not fall off.

If you’re going to put it into a container for their lunchbox instead of eating it right away, make sure to leave it on the napkin for a minute before enclosing it in plastic, just in case there’s any errant moisture. Then pack it off, or refrigerate it until the next day.

I really love these little guys. There just isn’t much of a better bite-size snack around Halloween than these tiny Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Pumpkins.

I’ve made these many times, and this year my girls helped out. My 5yo made quite a few completely on her own.

It’s a great way to get your kids in the kitchen – the main challenge being getting them not to eat all the marshmallows!

It takes a little bit of time to get all of those tiny marshmallows covered, but it is SO worth it! Biting into the smooth vanilla-flavored chocolate that surrounds the pillow-like center with that one tiny crunch of the sprinkle “stem” is just utter delight!

Melt the candy melts according to the package directions, making sure the chocolate is smooth and drips from the fork somewhat easily, but that it’s not very hot.

Meanwhile, separate out the green sprinkles.

Throw a marshmallow in the bowl and use a fork or two to cover it with chocolate. Scoop it out with the fork and gently tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to get rid of the excess chocolate. Then use a second fork to scrape the marshmallow off of the first fork and onto some parchment or waxed paper, making sure the marshmallow is upright.

Do this for a few marshmallows, and then take a break to insert a green sprinkle in the top of each pumpkin before the chocolate starts to harden, and trace around it with a toothpick if there is a lot of excess chocolate. This will make it easier to break off any extra big chunks once it has dried.

Coat the marshmallows until you run out of chocolate. One bag of candy melts will use up about half a bag of mini marshmallows. Let the pumpkins sit until fully hardened, about an hour. Then remove them from the paper. Store covered… and enjoy!

And not just because they’re shaped and colored like candy corn, though that is pretty awesome. But I also developed a new recipe that includes honey.

That’s right: honey.

And why not? Candy corn is made with honey. So even though I’d made cookies that looked like these in the past with sugar cookie dough, I wanted to try something a little different this year.

And the honey really pushed them over the edge. They were soft and sweet and smelled as delicious as they tasted.

So, first things first. You gotta make the dough.

Once you have the dough, split it into three balls and add yellow food coloring to one and orange to another while leaving one plain.

Then you stack the dough in layers in a bread pan and refrigerate it for a couple of hours. You can stack them in which ever order you choose, too. I went with white-yellow-orange, but most candy corn is actually colored white-orange-yellow. Not that it really matters, though. Everyone who saw these instantly recognized them for what they were.

When the dough is chilled, you’ll turn it out of the bread pan and cut it into thick slices, just like a loaf of bread. Then each slice will be cut into six or seven triangles by alternating the direction of your knife.

And don’t worry about it looking perfect. I gave my 3yo and 5yo butter knives and let them have at it, too.

When my 3yo pretty much shredded the dough, I just gently squeezed a few of those pieces together to form something that resembled a triangle.

(Incidentally, if you’re wondering why she’s wearing band-aids in the photo, well, those are for decoration. That’s just how we roll.)

Put the cookies on cookie sheets with a little space between them. They don’t spread much.

And you should use parchment paper lined sheets, unless you have something like these pans in the photos, which keep things from sticking.

And there you have it: beautiful, smooth, sweet cookies that are perfect for Fall!

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and egg with a mixer until creamy. Add the honey and vanilla and mix until well blended. Gradually add the flour mixture.

Move dough onto counter and cut into three pieces. Leave one piece plain and, using food coloring, dye the second piece yellow and the third piece orange. Knead the color into the dough, using extra flour to coat your hands so the dough doesn’t stick.

Line a 9 x 5 inch bread pan with plastic wrap. Press the dough into the pan one color at a time, spreading each layer across the entire pan. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Remove the dough from the bread pan and cut it into ¼-inch to ½-inch thick slices. Cut each slice into six triangles. Place cookies on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let sit on baking sheet for two minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Store covered. Makes about 6 dozen, depending on the thickness of the cookies.

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